The Evolution of the Time Lords
by Sparkling Cyanide
Summary: Even the Doctor could not completely foresee the consequences of his actions when he was struck by lightning atop the Empire State Building. (Addendum to the episode: The Evolution of the Daleks.)


A/N: This is an AU for the episode Evolution of the Daleks. The usual disclaimers apply – Doctor Who is not my intellectual property.

Summary: Even the Doctor could not completely foresee the consequences of his actions when he was struck by lightning atop the Empire State Building. (Addendum to the episode: The Evolution of the Daleks.)

* * *

**The Evolution of the Time Lords**

"_Sorry, I got in the way of the lightening strike. Time Lord DNA got all mixed up. Just that little bit of freedom."_

_-The Tenth Doctor (Evolution of the Daleks)_

Not all of them survived. It was a miracle that any of them survived at all. Of those that lay dead in the theater and in the underground tunnels, maybe one in ten was engulfed in burning golden light.

The newly born people stood looking at the world with new eyes in new faces, thinking new thoughts with new minds. In their confusion, they drew together, hiding in the sewer tunnels as they had nowhere else to go. It was there that Tallulah and Lazlo found them, as they searched the tunnels with the other Hoovervillians, to make sure that the threat was gone.

Unlike their original forms that had appeared uniformly human, the newly regenerated hybrids had a great range of features reflecting their mixed heritage. Some had two symmetric eyes and others had only one large eye in the middle of their foreheads. Some had a crown of tentacles where others had hair. Many had skin in the same range of tone as humans, but a few had skin in shades of grey. Some could read the thoughts of others, or perceive events before they happened, or feel the turn of the universe beneath their feet. The double helix of the human genetic structure had been successfully spliced with the crystalline genetic make-up of the Daleks. This, when combined with the extra dimensional properties of Time Lord DNA, allowed for nearly infinite combinations of traits in each individual alone.

It was a surprise to find them living, and in some ways a relief after all the fear and death, but in other ways it created uncertainty. While Hooverville had slowly and almost reluctantly accepted Lazlo, they couldn't accept the strange and alien nature of the hybrids - the remains of creatures that had brought so much pain.

Only Tallulah embraced them. She knew what it was like to be penniless and adrift in a cold and unforgiving city and she'd be damned if she let anyone else go that way. As much as the memory scared her, she had witnessed the evolution of Dalek Sek and knew that whatever their appearance, these people had a human heart.

Lazlo for his part agreed with her and in a way the hybrids became their children. Lazlo didn't mind. That strange doctor had told him that his body had been too damaged by the Dalek's experiments to ever father children, but it didn't matter. He had Tallulah and that was more that he thought he'd ever have even before he became a pig man. He did his best to provide for his new family. Despite his odd appearance, his years working as a stage hand at the theatre made it easy for him to go unnoticed.

Tallulah nurtured her family. Their minds had been wiped clean during the experiment so they had to learn once more what it meant to be human. She comforted their confusion at the slurs thrown at them, taught them to deal with the pain of emotion but also to experience their joy. She nurtured their souls. She taught them to sing.

Eventually they settled in the abandoned lab hidden deep in the sewer tunnels under the empire state building, and it was there that the children went to work. They had the knowledge of their predecessors ingrained deeply in their minds just waiting to be unlocked like some racial or genetic memory -the unconventional thought patterns of both the Doctor and Dalek Sek and the innate intelligence of their human hosts. This world was not ready to accept them so they would find another world - new ground, new sun, a new sky, out there, just waiting for new people.

Their work wasn't done in a day. It took years, working with the primitive equipment offered by planet Earth and the other more advanced structures scavenged from the remains of the final experiment and some that they created for themselves. The work was orderly and methodical as the children inherently arranged themselves in a hierarchy that assigned everyone tasks according to their abilities and talents. This was done without judgment or favouritism or other corruptions often present in human hierarchies. What reason did they have for prejudice? They were all the same whether they had one eye or two hearts and each individual contributed according to his or her gifts.

The children worked tirelessly. They seemed to be blessed with long life, without illness or deformity and didn't appear to age.

It took many years to reach their goal, more years than Tallulah ever thought she'd see, and sadly more years that Lazlo had. While Tallulah thanked the doctor for every extra moment they shared together, the strain of Lazlo's transformation was too much and he died many years before she did. Though as much as she missed him every day, she had her children and was glad to be able to celebrate with them the day their work was completed.

The space time capsule, when it was completed, would have been regarded by human society as the pinnacle of scientific achievement but would have been shunned by Dalek and Time Lord society (If such societies remained to pass judgment) as primitive.

The capsule itself was plain and unadorned. From the outside it appeared too small to carry anyone anywhere but the inside was surprising. The children knew the secret of dimensionally transcendent spaces and the inside of the capsule contained its own universe with room enough for all and the ability to shift its way through time and space.

As the final act to complete the capsule and imbue it with a power source capable of spatial, temporal and dimensional perception, one of their number gave up her physical form and fused to the machine. While her brethren were saddened at the loss of her body, they did not grieve for her. They could still feel her thoughts brushing gently against their minds as they set out to explore the unknown.

Tallulah went with them - without Lazlo and without them she had nothing left.

Tallulah spelled her name with three L's and one H, but she hadn't told anyone that in years. She used to say that so that if ever she made it big and they put her name in lights, at least it would be spelled correctly. She gave that dream up years ago. Why would she want to be a star anyway, when she could walk among the real stars instead? Her children were leaving this world - tainted with the wanderlust of one of their creator, and she was going with them.

New York was a human city - made in the name of progress with human ambition and echoes of that city lasted though history - through all of time and space. She wanted to see what sort of city her children could build – Dalek - Human – Time Lord.

In many ways their existence was a peace treaty, signed on foreign soil - the only treaty of the Last Great Time War.


End file.
